Dear Robert, I'm sorry... 2012

... for how, at the party at your mansion in my dream this morning, I accidentally clicked the wrong place in that real estate app on your Kindle (you know, the one with the handle like an old hand mirror) and put in a bid from you on that house.

love,

Dinah

Doing what you love 2012

I'm working my way through the remaining stack of books relating to productivity and happiness which I accumulated during the writing of Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff. Some are new to me, a few are significant works I wanted to re-read, and a good percentage are other books by authors who wrote something I liked a great deal. I flipped through all of them at least a little during the writing process, but now I'm giving them more attention before swapping them away. It's one of these last ones that I'm reading today: Live the Life you Love by Barbara Sher.

In Lesson Five she asks you to think about what you loved doing during your childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. I thought immediately of playing with plastic animals and Fisher-Price Adventure People and the long, involved stories I would make up for them. Turning my mind to adolescence I picture being a dungeonmaster, both running games and, perhaps even more enjoyed, sitting at the desk in my room, listening to music, designing dungeons and the stories behind them. As an undergraduate there was more gaming, but also in theater arts, anthropology, archaeology, and history classes, the process of increasing my understanding of how someone related to their world.

Really, it's a bit surprising it's taken as long as it has for me to start writing novels. :)

Media I've enjoyed lately 2011

Wow. Lots to catch up on since the last time I posted on podcast episodes I really enjoyed. Not to worry, though, most of them are from 60-Second Science.

 

Science and Technology

Science Talk - The Poisoner's Handbook : The Sinister Side of Chemistry

Astronaut Love: An Interview with Spacewalker Stanley Love

TEDTalks - Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus - Mike deGruy (2010)

Hans Rosling on global population growth - Hans Rosling (2010)

Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine - Hans Rosling (2010)

60-Second Science: Trusting Souls Excel at Spotting Liars

Low-Level Moral Transgressions Make Us Laugh

Solar Panels Dust Themselves Off

Dinner Party Discovered 12,000 Years Later

Organic Strawberries Beat Conventionally Grown In Test Plots

Pirates Need Science, Too

Butterflies Choose Plants for Medicinal Qualities

Mice Prefer Treats They Worked Harder to Get

Neandertal Brains Retained Infantile Shape

Daydreaming Diminishes Happiness

Follow the Money to See Real Communities

CSIs Could Estimate Victim's Age with Just Blood

It's Even More Full Of Stars

Saturn's Rings May Be Remnants of a Moon

Database Tries to Track Culture Quantitatively

Young Female Chimps Cradle Stick-Toys like Dolls

 

Creativity and Learning

TEDTalks - Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs - Cameron Herold (2010)

Aditi Shankardass: A second opinion on learning disorders  - Aditi Shankardass (2009)

John Hunter on the World Peace Game - John Hunter (2011)

Jok Church: A circle of caring - Jok Church (2007)

60-Second Science: Reach Kitchen Staff with Safety Stories

 

Health

TEDTalks - Ananda Shankar Jayant fights cancer with dance  - Ananda Shankar Jayant (2009)

Stephen Palumbi: Following the mercury trail - Stephen Palumbi (2010)

Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work - Nigel Marsh (2010)

60-Second Science - Ancient Brewmasters Made Medicinal Beer

A Few Drug-Resistant Bacteria May Keep the Whole Colony Alive

Salmonella Take Advantage of Our Battle Plan

City Living Promoted Resistance to Infectious Disease

Love Lessens Pain

Clenched Muscles Assist Self-Control

New Crop of Elderly Outsmart Their Predecessors

Receptors for Taste Found in the Lungs

Text Message Outreach Improves HIV Patients' Outcomes

Exercising to Music Keeps Elderly Upright

Ultramarathoners Reveal "Safe" Injuries

Think More to Eat Less

Trained Rats Sniff Out TB

Placebos Work Even When You Know

98.6 Trades Metabolic Cost for Fungal Protection

 

Simplicity

TEDTalks - Jessi Arrington: Wearing nothing new - Jessi Arrington (2011)

 

The spoken word and the personal voice remain incredibly powerful 2011

Here's just a hint of the experience I had this week at Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at Berkeley Reperatory Theater.

This doesn't do the full experience justice and only gives a hint of the interwoven stories of beautiful technology, our love for it, the people we think of who bring it to us, and the people who do that we don't think of.

I urge you to see this show. It will move your mind.

Great writing 2010

"The most unmistakable chemical transformation is that of a matter's state – a solid liquefies, a liquid evaporates, a vapor condenses into rain. For most of the furnishings of our everyday life, we associate a particular substance with only one of those three states. Wood, steel, and stone – solid. Oxygen and helium – gas. Alcoholic beverages – liquid (you can keep a bottle of Bombay Sapphire in the freezer, and somehow it remains an ever pourable starter to a gin and tonic). Water again bucks convention and seems almost equally at home in all three forms, as ice, steam, and liquid. In fact, Earth is exceptional in its possession of tristate water. Mars has a lot of water, but it's frozen away underground. Jupiter and Saturn have traces of water, too, but as orbiting ice crystals or a gas among miasmic gases. Only on Earth are there ocean flows and Arctic floes and sputtering Yellowstone fumaroles; only the Goldilocks planet has water to suit every bear."

- Natalie Angier, The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

Definitely in motion on my road 2010

My latest Discardia post is about choosing what you most want and don't want in your life and then bearing those priorities in mind when faced with options (which we are all day, every day).

Here are my choices:

I want...
1. to be thriving in a great relationship.
2. to feel healthy and strong.
3. to be a published author.

I don't want...
1. to work in a cubicle.
2. to have little control over when I do what.
3. to be stressed all the time.

I'm making great progress on all of these goals. I quit my office job just over a year ago, went into business for myself as a productivity and life coach, started writing my book about Discardia, devoted more of my energy to my relationship with Joe, and consciously began designing my life for less stress.

The feeling healthy and strong part has been tough, though, I have to admit. I hate gyms. I have a weak knee and a weak ankle which make running or jogging very unattractive. Really, the only exercise routine I actually like and seek out many times a week is walking. As someone with a project of walking the city of San Francisco – every street, every block – that's not a surprise, right? :)

During the past two years I've made various attempts to up my activity level. I tried the Wii Fit for a while; fun, but not inspirational for daily activity. I got a pedometer and renewed my focus on my SF walking project; definitely a help, but not always compatible with working on a book and maintaining a happy home many hours a day.

Yesterday, I think I finally found the sweet spot: a treadmill desk.
I moved my Ikea office armoire to the other wall so the space in front of it wouldn't block our path to the back bathroom, switched the shelves around so that the extending desk surface could hold my monitor at face height when I'm standing, and put my treadmill in front of the desk. There are a couple tweaks needed – the typing surface needs to be an inch or two lower and the stereo speaker buzz needs to be resolved – but in the first part of my day today (less than two hours) I've already strolled at a comfortable speed of 0.7 miles an hour (while typing and reading) and logged over 2700 steps.

I can see that with this setup it will be very difficult not to reach a daily goal of at least 10,000 steps. Also my energy and alertness levels are both higher than when I'm sitting in a chair. Awesome!

Notes on my setup:
- LifeSpan Fitness TR200 Fold-N-Stor Compact Treadmill
- nice finished board
- two scarves to tie board on treadmill handles
- blanket under board for padding and as additional safety grip
- Ikea armoire with extendable shelf
- cheapish monitor
- MacBook
- creativity

a writing fragment from tonight 2010

“‘Jacked into your deck?’ That’s one-damn-thing-after-another thinking, Grandpa.” Snorting at me, she shakes her head, crossing the street with one thumb flying over the screen in her hand, the earbud near me dangling, bouncing against the strap of her messenger bag.

She’s not a messenger. Doesn’t even ride a bike. But everyone’s got one. And they’re all hooked to the Net 24/7.

Used to say 24/7/365 back in the day, but no one thinks in timescales that long anymore. Or that short. Kids today get millennia in a way we never did. Decades later and they’re walking like Egyptians, carefully placing their feet so as not to disturb the seventh seventh generation on.

My mind flinches at the mashup, but kohl eyes under Iroquois feathers wouldn’t ruffle this year’s class. Mudbloods and mongrels now, not monoculture.

Healthier for it too. In a world that changes this fast, xenophilia is a survival trait. You can see her kind know it too. They glide around the slow-movers, eyes and text flitting away from each stasis-symbol to each other, noting impending obsolescence.

Is she just dumpster-diving me? Eh, probably. And do I mind? No. Might as well get repurposed.

Quick tips from a novice on writing your book proposal 2010

I haven't got a book contract yet, but I have finished the proposal and agents are looking at it, so I'm no longer a complete noob.

Start with the layout, then fill in where you have the best energy at this moment (or where you most need to put in a little sprint to build up a neglected section).

Achieving the right tone of braggadocio in the “About the Author” section can be excruciating and the competitive analysis may alternate between mind-numbing boredom and under-confident angst. Just keep chipping away at the task, building, polishing, and get yourself to a first draft you can get some feedback on from friends or writing buddies.

My outline for a non-fiction title, gleaned from multiple sources:

- In Brief (the elevator pitch; you should be able to say this at a comfortable pace in about 15 seconds)

- Overview (may take the form of the back cover copy; about a page)

- Target Audience (include book category and recent news articles or major med, ideally from you, but otherwise on your topic; I did 2 pages plus the citations)

- About the Author (1 page, demonstrate why you are the person to write this book and reference the skills which will help you not just write but sell it)

- Competitive Titles (demonstrate a market and justify why your book is needed; what do you offer that others don’t? I did 1 page plus a very detailed landscape diagram, but I have a supplemental document with annotations for the other titles in this space and how mine is different)

- Marketing and Promotion (Where will you reach your audience? How fast can you deliver the completed manuscript? Any other notes on release timing, presentation, etc.)
---Target Media Outlets (Be specific: who and why will they be interested?)
--- Blurbs (Who will write a endorsement quote? Other publicity connections, e.g. blogs who’ve covered you in the past)
--- Media & Speaking Appearances (What is your experience in this area? Do you have any useful connections you’ll be working with?)
--- Serialization/Excerpts (Does the work lend itself to excerpts? Who would be interested in publishing those?)
--- Additional Promotional Opportunities

- Detailed Table of Contents (With annotations indicating the role of each chapter/section and its approximate length)

- 2 Sample Chapters

Intellectual property, the online life, and physical death 2010

The recent loss of my dear friend Brad Graham and the memories it brought up of another wonderful person we lost too soon, Leslie Harpold, has me thinking about what might happen to my online presence when I die.

In remembering Brad, many of us began to worry that his wonderful voice online as expressed in his Bradlands.com website might be lost to us as Leslie's was.

I'm fortunate to have a family that understands and celebrates the important role the Web plays in my life. My mother – who could, as my principal emergency contact on all documents calling for such a thing and beneficiary on any life insurance policies I've ever had, argue persuasively that she is my primary heir – has a thriving online life herself, primarily through Flickr. She's also, like me, a writer and would, I think, understand my desire that my works be preserved.

However, the legal position is unclear. My websites have always had copyright statements - either explicitly or implicitly "All Rights Reserved". Some of my Flickr content is Creative Commons licensed, but I have not taken the time to review and update all of my public creative output and its stated license terms.

And why is the legal position unclear? Because I do not have a will. Because of course I'm not going to die anytime soon. Of course. Never mind that Brad was younger than I.

So, yes. I should make a will. But I'd also like to find a way to make it easier for people to declare their intentions without that step.

We in the United States have CC0, which is basically a "No Rights Reserved" license. We have traditional copyright which protects our work for 70 years after our death. But we don't have an easy way to say "While I'm alive, this belongs to me, but after I die, I want to give it to the public domain."

Evan Roth has suggested an "Intellectual Property Donor" sticker for the back of your driver's license, just like an organ donor sticker, but it's unclear that this would be binding since it does not appear on the works to which it applies. It seems to me that a succinct statement which could appear on the work itself, much as a copyright statement does, would be easy to use and legally stronger.

I've got some homework ahead of me, learning more about this topic. I'll be looking at sites like The Digital Beyond and, in particular, their list of service providers in this space. I will also be attending the session "Become Immortal: Understanding the Digital After Life" at SXSW Interactive in March.

Please share your thoughts in the comments and let me know if there are other resources I should be checking out.

---

The clever Lillian Chow remembered the details of what I only had a vague echo of in my head: Neil Gaiman wrote a great post about this concern and provided, with assistance from lawyer Les Klinger, a tool – a simple will – to help address it. This takes the approach of naming trustees rather than turning things over to the public domain, but it does provide a model we could start from.

Any estate, copyright or other lawyers want to weigh in in the comments on that idea and/or on a phrase which could be used on the bottom of a website to reference it. Something like "Copyright © John Doe during my lifetime, transferred to public domain upon my death, per my will."

On the beach in Zihuatanejo, listening to an American 2009

What animal would have a voice like that? Thin, high, happy bray. The teeth sound larger, the jaw juts to the side, when I look with my eyes closed. Long ears. A jackrabbit. Bugs' country cousin, with that tattoo from his service years in Korea.

"Haw!"

Long loping legs and rough hair, Dürer carving in a table leg at an inn. Beer spilled on the table.

In memory of my grandfather, Robert S. McCombs 2009

In celebrating Discardia this time I was going through some old boxes, finding things that can be discarded and re-discovering things that are important and which should never have been buried in a box.

These words, which I spoke at my beloved Grandpa Bob's funeral in the Wasco Methodist Church almost eight years ago, were in a old notebook I just opened at random. I thought I'd lost them or destroyed them in a moment of grief. I am so glad they were just a temporary victim of conquerable clutter.

---

When I was a child Grandpa Bob and Grandma Susie would bring me to this church, both for services and - to me more exciting - on church business at other times when I would get to play and explore in the Sunday School rooms and Epworth Hall while they did their grown-up things. Since then I've been to many other lovely places, even heard evensong in Canterbury Cathedral in England, but this remains for me the most beautiful church in the world.

I know that Grandpa loved it deeply too and felt proud to introduce me to it. Now he could have made a big deal out of that introduction, but he didn't.

One of the things about him which I most treasure, one of the best lessons he taught me, is that reverence and human nature needn't be at odds. When I was small, sermons were longer, by far, than my attention span. I suppose, by shushing and scolding, I could have been forced to suppress the outward physical signs of my mind wandering, but I suspect that the strongest lesson I would have learned in church might then have been how to pretend to be engrossed in something I didn't understand.

Instead of teaching me that lesson, my Grandpa Bob taught me a much better one: he taught me that inspiration comes to us not by straining but by relaxing and perceiving. And he did it in the most relaxed and intuitive way, teaching by doing.

He knew that inspiration, great and small, can come to us at any moment and so he kept his eyes and his mind open - and he kept a pen and some 3 x 5 index cards in his shirt pocket so if it did come he could write it down and remember it even if he had another dozen minor epiphanies on his way out the door!

When he took me to church, to this beautiful church, he was always watching me as well as listening to the sermon and when he saw my feet start to swing or noticed me reading the program for the fourth time, he wouldn't say a word, he'd just smile that wonderful smile and quietly slip me a card or two and his pen.

Thus my memory of church as a child is not of a place where some man went on endlessly about confusing things while the grownups shushed me repeatedly, but rather of a beautiful place where I could relax and listen and think and write or draw pictures and feel inspiration and love and reverence around me.

Now as an adult, at many an important occasion, I've learned that my attention span isn't that much bigger than it once was and I've suffered a pang of guilt for thinking something like "Good grief, this is the longest wedding ceremony I've ever been to..." but then I remember those 3 x 5 cards and the permission they gave me to approach things at my own pace, to receive whatever lesson I was ready to learn, to experience the mood, the nature, of a time and place without feeling the need to examine and record every detail.

I want to share this lesson with you.

At some point today, even in this memorial service for someone we love very deeply, we admire very much, our minds will wander. This is not a betrayal of his memory; he loved the human mind with all its quirks. He's laughing and winking at you when you realize you've drifted off. Don't worry about it; be yourself.

Bob always seemed to like us best when we were just that.

But while you're woolgathering, if you remember something about him, some anecdote or a quality you always like about him, whatever it be, won't you please take one of those 3 x 5 cards you see in there with the hymnals and jot a note to remind you to share the story with us in Fellowship after the service?

As I learned from Grandpa Bob, church is about inspiration; life is about inspiration; welcome the gift, great or small, when it comes. Be yourself and be open to grace.

Thank you.

Improving your style in a few easy steps 2009

Even if you once were on top of the image you projected through your clothes every day, it's easy to get stuck in a rut and stop noticing changes in yourself, perceptions, and the condition of those old favorite clothes.

For a lot of us, though, we've never been on top of fashion at all. Maybe like me you grew up comfy without a lot of pressure to worry about your appearance. That's ideal when you're a kid, but tough when you're trying to make a good impression professionally. Certainly like everyone you're carrying around some baggage from your past. Maybe it's a color or kind of clothing you're convinced you shouldn't wear because of something someone said long ago. Perhaps an urge to hide some part of your anatomy that you've built up embarrassment about - I see the early bloomers nodding here, remembering being the tallest kid in the class or the girl who first needed a bra, and hunching their shoulders forward. Or maybe you've just been following along with the trends as they pass through the stores and your closets, never having devoted the time to find and celebrate your own personal style.

I'm not suggesting we all suddenly need to be studying fashion magazines and spending all our money on the latest clothes. I'm working from a simple thesis:

Each of us looks better in some things than others.

So why not wear more of those things and less of the others?

Step One: Figure out what you like.
Start paying attention to what draws your positive attention. It's fine to also keep track of what you don't like, but the goal here is to begin collecting images that please you, especially those relating to fabric, color, silhouettes, but really anything can act as inspiration. Yes, certainly you can paste into a scrapbook, but I'd be wary of too much of that lest you focus on what's in current magazines only. You want to draw from a larger pool of ideas. Learn how to take screenshots on your computer (on Macs shift-control-command-4 is your friend!) and start grabbing those details for a journal kept in a word processing file. It's easy to copy an image to your clipboard and then paste it in with a comment of what you like about it.

Look through picture blogs like Nerd Boyfriend and Fashionist to attune yourself to people who are really shining out as individuals beyond as well as through their clothes and accessories. Take a look at this entry from Nerd Boyfriend about Michael Caine for a good example of how perfectly normal clothes can amplify a personality.

Be sure your explorations include things you're passionate about and explorations in unfamiliar environments. Expose yourself to new experiences and old things viewed anew.

Step Two: Figure out what you're like
You can do this in parallel with step one. What are your best qualities, both physical and otherwise? A great guide to this is the book 10 Steps to Fashion Freedom: Discover Your Personal Style from the Inside Out by Levene & Mayfield. Your local library probably has a copy. Give yourself credit for your great smile, beautiful skin, expressive hands, or whatever your best physical assets are. Accept and embrace your other strengths - are you reliable, funny, kind, resilient, patient, forthright, charming, sensitive, vibrant?

Decide what 2 or 3 things are the impression you most want to create. A few example personal style statements (taken from 10 Steps to Fashion Freedom) are "I project a substantial and meaningful presence", "I present a confident and sophisticated image", and "My personal style exudes quality and individuality." Your personal style statement needn't be completely reflected in your current best qualities, but should be supported by them. Make sure it works for who you are as well as who you're heading into being

Step Three: Take Inventory
What clothes do you have and how do they interact with your body? This can be a big project so you may want to take it in stages. Pick a category of clothes which are important to you either through frequent use or because you'll need them for an upcoming event. Don't pick the category which makes up the majority of your clothes; you want to get a quick sense of this step without exhausting yourself. Ideally do this with a camera with a self-timer in front of a full-length mirror with lots of good lighting. Bring in extra lights, especially if you have a lot of dark clothing or your pictures won't capture the details which will be useful later.

Do this when you have time to relax and are in a good mood. Do not let yourself bog down in emotional baggage or bad internal talk as you look at yourself. Remind yourself of your best qualities and stay on track. Personally I find staring in the mirror can be tough - I weigh more than I want to - so taking photos was a great way to get enough distance to assess what works and what doesn't in my wardrobe.

The big advantage of the self-timer is that you can get pictures of yourself from the back and the sides. I found a few surprises among my clothes where things which are very flattering in front have details which makes the bad fit strangely.

Work your way through this category - suits or formal dress can be a good place to start - and then take a look at your photos. What new things do you learn about your best features? I found my hands appeared far more graceful than I'd expected. What negative patterns in your existing wardrobe do you uncover which you'll want to avoid in future? When I looked at my outfits as others see them, I realized how many things I have which are way too big for me and are unflattering as a result.

As you look through your pictures, watch for colors which make you look great. It's amazing the difference a color which complements your skin and hair can make.

I wouldn't have guessed a charcoal grey would make the color of my lips, hair and, though you can't see them in this photo, my eyes more appealing, but it turns out to be a far more flattering color for me than pale pink.

Don't count on your photos as the best way to document your colors; like me, you'll probably find your lighting isn't good enough for that. A great resource in identifying them is to compare the good looking garments to Wikipedia's "shades of" pages which include samples and color names. So handy! Just take a little detailed screenshot of the color you need and start to build up your palette in your style journal.

Step Four: Cut out the bad choices
Life is too short to wear stuff that makes you look crappy. Friends & family, charity, or trash, just get the worst stuff out. Better to have fewer choices than constantly have to route around the bad ones, especially when you're tired or feeling low.

I found it helpful to think about the clothes I'm keeping as belonging to two main categories: best and casual/adequate. The latter includes not only very informal clothes, but also ones which show too much wear to remain in the "best" group. There are also some in this group which are in good condition, but in a less flattering cut or color than I'd ideally like. Note that anything out-and-out unflattering hit the donation bags, these are just the ones that are "okay for now".

In future, I want to buy primarily into the "best" group with the idea that most if not all of my informal clothes should be of such good quality that they could migrate over to loosen up an otherwise dressy ensemble. Think about the impact, for example, of a really good pair of jeans worn with fancy shoes and a stylish blazer and shirt. That same pair of jeans could be worn with hip sneakers, a plain silk blend t-shirt, and a cool hoodie from an indie designer to create a fully casual outfit. Or any of the other parts of that casual outfit could be pulled in with more formal pieces to add ease and character.

If it's all good stuff and it looks great on you, mornings get a lot easier.

Step Five: Take opportunities to upgrade
As you eliminate garments or relegate them to your "merely adequate" group, start a wishlist of replacement pieces which will be more flattering in fit, color, and in reflecting your personal style statement. As I write this there are three pieces in my physical inbox awaiting addition to my shopping wishlist with notes "get this style in one of my colors", "too large! replace with a medium petite, ideally in a more coral pink & less salmon color", and "too long in body & sleeves, too loose in waist; need petite?".

Unless you're blessed with a huge budget or were fortunate enough to have a great collection of clothes already, pick out one to three pieces on your wishlist which you most need and which will be most versatile and just get those for now.

Don't forget to be creative with how you turn bad clothes into good; consider trading your clothes at a second-hand store you like that has regular buying days and use that credit to shop their shelves for your wishlist items.

As with most of life, just start leaning each of your choices in the direction of the future you want to have and you'll be amazed at the progress you'll make in six months or a year.

Highly recommended: 5 years of All Over Coffee at SFPL 2009

"Everything is its own reward"

- Paul Madonna

There's a free show downstairs at San Francisco Public Library through August 23rd, 2009, and I strongly encourage you to visit. This work is lovely to see full-size and up close, plus there's lots of good insight into the artist's process and philosophy.

After spending time with his art and listening to him speak in an older KQED video in the exhibit, I am fairly certain that Paul Madonna might understand better than most people my motivation for and pleasure in my project to walk every street in San Francisco, every block.

Beautiful city.

Additional resources:
SFPL exhibits page
Paul Madonna's website
All Over Coffee in the San Francisco Chronicle
Artist Talk event from June 25th is among the content here (but SFPL has unfortunately not caught on to the idea of permalinks for the videos. Sigh.)

Goodbye, George 2008

The great George Carlin has died.

Not "passed on". Not "expired" (like a magazine subscription). We just lost a great critic, so celebrate his life by watching or listening to some of his comedy. Here's a good place to start: George on language.

2008

Mattijn's book is available! 2008

Photomontaged Daydreams
Originally uploaded by Mattijn.

Fellow fans of photo-artist Mattijn Franssen will be pleased to learn that his work is busting out of the confines of Flickr and into book form.

I've been impressed by the quality of Blurb publications in the past, so I'll be getting a copy of this one.

I like Banksy. 2005

You should go visit his site.

My sexy wordsmith friends make me happy. 2005

Seth wrote "I mostly let my music appliance randomly weave through its 40GB of joy like a stoned magpie in a tinsel factory..."

Lovely!

Time to let iTunes work its random magic.